McLaren’s title call: Montoya says contracts keep Norris racing Piastri, not backing him
McLaren’s easy stride to the 2025 constructors’ title has given way to a far messier question: should the team start leaning on Lando Norris to help Oscar Piastri finish off the drivers’ championship?
On paper, it’s the neat solution as Max Verstappen has muscled his way back into the conversation. In reality, former McLaren man Juan Pablo Montoya says it’s not that simple — and might even be off the table altogether.
“They can’t because, first of all, the drivers’ contracts say that as long as they are mathematically in the championship, they can’t give them team orders to help the other driver,” Montoya told AS Colombia, making the point that intra-team switches aimed at one driver’s title push are different to instructions “to benefit the team.”
That distinction matters now. With five grands prix and two sprints left, Piastri leads the standings, Norris is just 14 points behind, and Verstappen — resurgent and sniffing a five-peat — is 40 off the top. McLaren’s drivers are still very much in it, which is precisely Montoya’s point: as long as both have a shot, don’t expect a radio call turning Norris into a rear gunner.
It also dovetails with how McLaren have carried themselves all season. Andrea Stella’s crew have played the long game: equal machinery, equal opportunity, clear rules on racing each other. That credo took a hit in Zandvoort when Norris retired and Piastri banked heavy points, but the team has resisted any temptation to tilt the table since. Fairness has been the line; keeping both drivers inside the fight has been the byproduct.
Could that change? Yes — but not yet, and maybe not for the reasons people think. “Team orders to benefit the team” covers the usual toolbox: swap if one car’s on a better strategy, don’t cost each other time, hold position late to lock down a 1–2. You can do a lot with that without ever saying “help your team-mate’s title.”
Where it gets political, as Montoya hinted, is the framing. If Verstappen starts ripping chunks out of the orange cars on Sundays and the math turns, McLaren’s internal calculus will change with it. But to pull the lever now, with seven points-paying sessions still on the calendar and only 14 between their guys, would be an unnecessarily blunt U-turn.
And make no mistake, Norris has earned the right to keep swinging. He’s been carving back at Piastri’s lead since that Zandvoort DNF, he’s been the benchmark in qualifying at several key weekends, and he’s driving like a man who knows the window is open right now. Piastri’s been just as composed — fewer errors, tire whispering on Sundays, and the kind of track position discipline that wins titles. The idea is you let that play out, not suffocate it.
This is where the Verstappen factor complicates the picture. If Red Bull’s late-season form is genuine and not circuit-specific, McLaren may ultimately be forced into the kind of orchestration they’ve tried to avoid — not a “number one/number two” edict, but racecraft that nudges points toward the stronger title hand on a given weekend. That’s the grey area teams live in. It’s also where Norris and Piastri have been exemplary: clean, sharp, and just hard enough without tipping the whole operation into 2007 flashbacks.
For now, the path looks clear. Keep both drivers live in the title fight. Use “team-benefit” orders when strategy makes it obvious. Don’t burn political capital until the mathematics tells you to. If Norris falls out of realistic contention — and there’s no sign of that yet — then you pivot, and he becomes the foil. Until then, you let them race, because they’ve earned it and because you might need both to fend off a certain charging No. 1.
McLaren’s greatest strength this year has been clarity. Montoya’s read suggests clarity is baked into the contracts, too. The title might be decided by who keeps that clarity longest.
